Ceiling and floor construction



CE ILI NG AND FLOOR CON STRUCT I ON Filed March 18, 1918 Patented Oct. 16, 1923.

UNITEDA STATES ERIC E. HALL, F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CEILING AND FLOOR CONSTRUCTION.

i Application file March 18, 1918. Serial No. 223,003.

- To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ERIC E. HALL, a citizen of the United- States, and a resident of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ceiling and Floor Constructions. of which the following is a full,v

clear, and exact specification. n

My invention is concerned with fioor and ceiling construction of the general character shown in my companion application No.

218613, filed February 23rd, 1918, and is de-v signed to produce a ceiling structure that can be cheaply constructed and easily suspended from, a concrete floor or girder construction. p

To illustrate my invention, I annex hereto a sheet of drawings in which thev same reference characters are used to designate identical parts in all the figures, of which-' Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the metal fixtures employed as they appear in place on the forms before the concrete is poured;

Fi 2 is a view as seen in cross-section on the lne 2-2 of Fig. 1 of the completed ceiling as it appears after the forms have been removed and the ceiling suspended;

iFig. 3 is a central longitudinal section 'as seen on line `3- 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a view in cross-section similar to Fig. 1, but at right angles to the position there shown and show a modified form of the anchor and trough construction; and

Fig. 5 is a View similar to Fig. 2 showing the modified construction as well as a modified form of the ceiling structure per se.

In carrying out my invention, an essential feature is a plurality of troughs 10 which are preferably formed from sheet metal and have at their ends the horizontal flanges 11 having apertures therein through which the nails 12. are driven into the wooden form `aso 13 when the troughs 'are secured in place. It will bev understood that these troughs are secured in lines spaced apart a suitable distance between troughs and between the lines of troughs, and where the fioor has a girder construction, such as shown in Figs. 2 and 5, they are preferably placed so that they will be in the center of the concrete 14 and between thereinforcing bars 15. `The body of the trough vis made vup, of a top part 16 which is the -full width-of the trough, and preferably has a central raised portion along the length of the trough. It has parallel sides 17, and at the bottom of these sides is av pair of inwardly projecting portions or flanges 18, which are preferably corrugated, asv shown. At the inner edges of these flanges 18 Aare the downwardly extending sides or flanges 19, which leave a narrow channel between them, and at the bottom of these flanges I preferably form a pair of horizontally projecting flanges 20 so that there are narrow channels formed extending the length of the trough between the flanges 18 and 20, and there is a narrow opening throughout the length of the trough representing the width of the distance between the vertical flanges 19. The trough also has the ends 21, from which the flanges 11 previously mentioned project horizontally. These troughs, it will' be understood, are secured on the false work 13 in suitable lines separated by a suitable distance, and these lines will ordinarily be parallel.

'As the troughs just shown by themselves' would not furnish the desired ,amount of anchorage in the concrete, I preferably employ an anchor wire, which may be of the shape shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3 but which is preferably of the shape shown in Figs. 4 and 5,especially where the invention is employed with the girder construction shown. In the form shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, the central portion of the wire consists of a'loop 22 of the general shape of an inverted U'and having at the lower end thereof the inwar'dly projecting parallel portions 23, from which extend the parallel ends'24. The anchor wire is so shaped that before it i s put inflplace, the ends 24 tend to stand in lne or even lpast each other so that' when they are sprung apart and slipped into the exterior 'channels on the trough they are sprung together and hold the anchorv in place with a spring pressure, and after the to properly position them relative to thev reinforcing bars 15, as seen in Figs. 4 and 5. The place of the portions 23 of the first form are taken in this modification by the longer inclined portions 23Et which terminate in theisame ends 24a which are spaced is shown as formed of sheet metal havin apart and operate in the same manner. For this form of anchor, the portions 18a of the trough co-operating therewith are preferably inclined to an angle corresponding to that of the parts 238: With this construction, as a substitute for the flanges 11 and nails 12 in holding the troughs in place while the concrete is being poured I may form on the curves connecting the portions 22b and 23a the points 12% Which are forced into the side walls 13 of the Wooden forms.

After the concrete has hardened and the forms have been removed the suspension of the ceiling is begun by placing in each of the troughs .10 a strong suspension rod 2, whch has a head 26, preferably formed inl the shape of a fiattened loop, as shown in Fig. 2, or which might be formed in the shape of an S turned on its side, as seen at 26*at in 'Fig. 5. The head of the rod 25 is of course raised. into the body of the trough while the length of its head is parallel to the length of the trough, and when it is positioned at the desired place in the trough, as it may be, it is turned at right angles, and the head is sprung as it were, between the convergng surfaces formed by the edges of the under side of the top 16 and the upper surface of the portions 18. The bottoms 27 of the rods, which are of the same length and of a length depending on the space between the bottom of the concrete andithe top of the ceiling are turned at right angles to the body of the rod, i. e., horizontal, and extend into the skeletonized bar or trough which forms a part of the ,ceiling suspension system which I employ. In Fig. 5, this trough 28 the horizontal flanges 29, the substantially vertical strengthening ribs 30, and the trough proper 31, which has a plurality of apertures 32 and 33 therein, so that the plaster can enter the sides of the trough. This trough construction is shown in detail in my companion application No. 223,002, filed March 18, 1918, where it is claimed as an article of manufacture. When the f trough has been positioned with the ends 27 at the bottom thereof, it is secured by .the malleable pins 34- which pass through suitable apertures in the trough andover the end 27 so that the trough is supported from the rods 25. In one form of ceiling construction, I place Vbetween adjacent Yhars strips of plaster board 35, which strips have their edges beneath the horizontal flanges 29 of the trough; and which strips are held 'suspended by wire nails 36 or some similar metallic pins passed through suitable aper- 'tures, such as the apertures 32 in the sides of ceiling.

In Fig. 2 I have illustrated a preferred construction in which the place of the plas- ,ter board 35 is taken by a wire mesh 352 by omitting a few of the longitudinal strands, as seen/ in Fig. 1, and enlarging the two longitudinal strands 30a on either side of the trough. With this construction, the bottom 27 of the rods are placed in the` bottoms of the troughs 31a and the nails 36 are passed over the horizontal ends 27 of the rods and beneaththe body of the wire mesh so as to support the latter in a manner which will be lreadily understood. After the mesh is thus supported, a. layer 37 or layers of plaster is applied to the under side of the mesh, the first layer being forced through the meshes, while whatever finishng layer is desired may be placed on the underside, thus completing the job.

While I have shown and described m invention as embodied in the form whichl at present consider best adapted to carry out 1ts purposes, it will be understood that it is capable of modifications, 'and that I do not desire to be limited in the interpretation of the following claims, except as may be necessitated by the state of the prior art.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

A1. In a ceiling and floor structure, the combination with a solid concrete floor, of a series of lines of shallowmetallic troughs having wide body portionsl and narrow open g sides anchored and embodied therein as the floor is poured with their narrow open sides at the bottom of the concrete, depending rods provided with heads having their heads secured from vertical movement in the wider bodies of the troughs, skeletonized metallic bars secured to the lower ends of the rods, and sheets 'of plastic material supported between said bars to form a ceiling.

2. In a. ceiling and floor structure, the combination with a solid concrete floor, of a series of lines of shallow metallic troughs having wide body portions and narrow open sides anchored andembeddcd thcrein as the floor is oured with their narrow open sides at the liottom of the concrete, depending rods provided with heads having their heads secured from vertical movement in the wider bodies of each of the troughs. wire mesh fabric having troughs into whichv the lower ends of the rods extend andto which they are secured. formed'therein and suspended from said rods, and plastic material placed on the under side of' and throuIgh said wire mesh to form aceiling.

3. n a ceiling and floor structure, the combination with a solid concrete floor, of a series of lines ofshallow metallic troughs sides embedded therein as the floor is.

I poured, with their narrow open sides at the cured from vertical movement bottom of the concrete, wire anchorV members adapted to be sprung on and secured to the troughs andto be embedded in the concrete when it is poured, a depending rod provided with a head having its head sein the wider body of each of the troughs, and a ceiling structure suspended from the lower ends of said rods.

4. In a ceiling and floor structure, the

- combination with a solid concrete floor, of a series of lines of thin shallow metal troughs embeddedtherein having a wide body portion and a narrow channel portion opening thereintol in the under side thereof, wire anchor members consisting of aloopbody portion adapted to be embedded in the con-' cretewhen the latter is poured and oppositely directed parallel ends' adapted to be sprung over the body portions of the troughs and into the-recesses formed outside of the channel portion ,to hold the anchors in place as the concrete is poured, depending 'ods having their heads secured from vertical movements in the wider bodies of the troughs, and a ceiling structure suspended from the lower ends of said rods.

In witness whereof, 1 have hereuntoset my hand and aflixed my seal, this 11th day of March, A. D. 1918. I

' ERIC E. HALL. [11. 8.] Witness:

JOHN HoWAm McELRoY. 

